


Bloody Petals and Broken Stones

by DestructivelyConstructive



Series: Drabbles [11]
Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons), Trollhunters - Daniel Kraus & Guillermo del Toro
Genre: F/M, Hanahaki Disease, I also love inflicting pain, These two are still one of my favorites, and it's trollish counterpart!, i just started to really work on it in the last few days, i started Nomura's first section and then this sat untouched for months
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2020-01-04 23:35:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18354044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestructivelyConstructive/pseuds/DestructivelyConstructive
Summary: Love is tricky, and when one's job is deception, misunderstandings occur and pain is soon to follow.Draal and Nomura find this out the hard way, denying themselves and refusing to talk about it.





	Bloody Petals and Broken Stones

_When the petals started coming up, Nomura had been terrified._

_At first, it was just a tickle in her throat. That was no big deal. She had simply cleared her throat more often than was probably polite to alleviate it for a time. There was the potential that it could be some sort of illness, but she wasn't too worried._

_Then the tickle became a faint irritation. She drank some tea with honey to soothe it. But by the time she had returned to her abode, her throat was scratchy. A sudden coughing fit hit her, and she felt something move in her throat._

_Suddenly she found herself at her kitchen sink, a section of her thigh aching from where she had clipped it. And she hacked and coughed, producing no less then fifteen petals amongst bloody bile. Without a second thought, or even an analysis of what she had coughed up, she turned on the facet and washed it away, a panic swelling._

_Why!?_

_Why was she coughing up flowers? Who did she love and was not loved by in turn? Who was she spending that much time wi-!?_

_Oh._

_Oh no._

_She can't. She can't have feelings for HIM. That throws everything out of balance! It would bring about her end if the news got out! Which it undoubtedly would, eventually, and the Janus Order were all a bunch of gossips, eagerly looking for ways to tear each other down and watch with glee as their position in the pecking order rose._

_She grit her teeth and pulled at her hair. She was going to have to cancel the rendezvous with the handsome blue brute that night._

_Handsome..._

_Nomura violently shook her head, turning to the sink again as the tickle in her throat came back. Thoughts like that were just going to make her situation worse! But she couldn't just drop him, she had a mission to complete!_

_But..._

_Her hand went to her throat, hovering._

_How could she look at him, look him in the eye, and know he didn't love her? That he doesn't feel for her like she does for him..._

_( **Impure** )_

_Nomura hacked violently, coughing into the sink and spitting out blood and petals. Her throat burned and her chest ached as she hacked up the flowers in her lungs and when she was finally able to breath without choking, she reached for the faucet again. But her hand only hovered over the cold water handle._

_Her eyes dropped to the bloody floral mess in her sink, and she moved her hand down to inspect what was blooming in her chest. Picking up a white petal, she gently ran it under a trickle of water before holding it to her face. Yielding nothing from it, she sighed and looked down in the sink again._

_She spotted a speckled petal, with a notable curve towards the end and carefully washed it off. This one she was able to identify easily._

_Amaryllis._

_She set it to the side and hummed as she picked up a rich yellow trumpet. She held it to the white petal from earlier and huffed. Some sort of daffodil it looked like._

_She spent a few more moments picking out the petals and trying to identify them and setting them to the side._

_Carnations. Striped pink and red._

_Marigolds._

_Petunias._

_And some form of ivy, flowered with tiny white blossoms._

_Having her samples, she washed the rest down the drain and into the garbage disposal before flipping it on._

_Two seconds later she flipped it off and left the water running as she ran her hands through her hair._

_What was she going to do?_

 

**It started when he awoke to an intense pain in his chest. The type of pain that left one wheezing and on the verge of collapse. Rattling breaths filled his home as he doubled over, but his voice was too weak, and himself too prideful, to call for help.**

**So Draal let himself suffer the cleaving sensations in the silence of his cave.**

**He tried any number of positions and ways to make the pain stop, but nothing seemed to work. Eventually he gave up, and simply laid on his side, wheezing and rattling before a sensation more powerful than anything he experienced since waking up.**

**A cry of pain left his mouth as he sat up, gritting his teeth and breathing heavily, before coughing violently. The intense pain lingered, digging further into his chest and refusing to let go. But the harder he coughed, the more agony's grip loosened, until – finally - something moved. It scraped against his throat, and he's sure some edges of whatever it was broke, and they clipped his teeth as he coughed them onto the cave floor.**

**Draal rested his head against his arm as he panted, only slight twinges of pain in his chest now. He wasn't sure he wanted to look at what had caused him such agony.**

**But he eventually rose his head and stared at the crystals in front of him. Black opal with bright green fire, and purple zoisite. And seeing their colors together reminded him of...**

**Bushigal.**

**He snatched them up just as his father burst in, on guard. “Draal, are you alright?”**

**The whelp in him him felt soothed at the evident concern in his father, but he knew that it was simply duty was calling.**

**Kanjigar quickly followed up with. “Someone reported a scream from here.”**

**Draal swallowed the disappointment before nodding. “Yes, I just stepped wrong and fell over something.”**

**It was a flimsy excuse at best, but as Kanjigar's eyes glanced around and found no perpetrators, he relaxed nonetheless. He turned back to Draal and nodded. “Please be more careful.”**

**“Of course. Thank you.”**

**Kanjigar nodded on last time before leaving.**

**Once he was out of sight, Draal pulled the stones out from behind his back and stared at them. He put the opal up against the zoisite and his chest tightened. It reminded him of... Her.**

**But what caused him to hack up these stones? He sighed and picked them up, leaving his cave and traveling towards the Heartstone.**

**He looked around awkwardly as he entered the orange crystal hall, jumping slightly as Vendel called out to him.**

**“And what brings you here, Draal?”**

**Draal stared owlishly at the elder before a pain in his chest had him coughing again. “I-kuff-have need so som-kuff-some assistance.”**

**Vendel's milky eyes narrowed as he hummed, beckoning him closer. “And what seems to be evading you?”**

**“I- well I coughed up a couple of stones this morning and I... am at a loss for the reason why.”**

**Draal did not expect Vendel to look so saddened, shaking his head. He held out his hand for the stones, and the blue troll hesitantly handed them to him, reluctant to let go of them for some reason.**

**“You poor soul. A love not returned is a painful ordeal. Especially if it's strong enough to cause this to manifest...”**

**“But what _is_ it?” Draal demanded.**

**“We have no name for this unfortunate infliction, but these,” He gestured with the zoisite and black opal. “Are called Heart Ache stones, for obvious reasons. They take after a troll's unrequited love. Now who have you being seeing to love this much Draal?”**

**Draal froze like a deer. He... He couldn't love her, could he? And tonight... He couldn't face her, _speak_ to her, with this revelation...**

**Vendel was still waiting for an answer, but Draal shook his head.**

**“That is my business.” He finally said, taking back the stones. “Please don't inform my father of this.”**

**Vendel hummed pensively before nodding. “Your business is your own. I will keep this from Kanjigar, or anyone who might ask.”**

**“Thank you Vendel.”**

**And as he walked back to his cave, he stared down at the stones in his hands, the ache coming back in his chest. Heart Ache stones indeed...**

* * *

 

**When the stones came, it was one of the most painful experiences of her life. She had been staying late in the museum, after limiting her meet ups with _him_ to once a week. Since she had the run of the place until opening hours, she decided to use her troll form.**

**It was a sweet relief, her skin no longer feeling like it was on too tight, but there was a pain in her chest. Nomura thought nothing of it, chalking it up to the flowers blooming in her lungs. She kept a box of tissues near by for that, specially provided by her employer when she found out, which was sweet of her. She might miss her when Gunmar was released.**

**Then a cleaving sensation struck her with the force of a charging Gumm-Gumm. A deep gasp escaped her and she stumbled, dropping the shield she had been handling. Her hands hovered over her chest, crying out as another sensation hit her, this time more like a hammer.**

**The pain knocked her legs out from under her and her hands and knees hit the ground harshly. She wheezed and clawed at her chest, finding cracks that weren't there before. The pain wracked her again, tightening like a fist on her chest.**

**Nomura could do nothing more than wheeze helplessly, coughing weakly. That small action sent her body into a frenzy, causing her to hack and cough just as she did with the flowers. Something shifted in her chest, and she coughed harder, tears of pain and extortion blurring her vision.**

**Eventually, finally, the obstruction cleared, moving up through her throat, scraping it raw. Several stones, pebbles really, feel from her mouth and scattered onto the floor, and Nomura stared. Then she groaned and lowered her body the rest of the way down to the floor to lay down.**

**It was bad enough she was coughing up Hanahaki flowers, now she was coughing up Heart Ache stones as well!?**

**After a moment feeling sorry for herself, she sat up and picked up two stones, one a vivid blue, and the other a deep red that flashed orange in the light.**

**She scowled at the two stones. She had enough reminders that he didn't love her, she didn't need stones that so closely mimicked his coloration reminding her of the fact.**

**She dropped them onto the ground and then left to get a broom to sweep all of the stones up. Maybe she could go give them to a jeweller. She didn't need these around for anyone, especially Draal, to see.**

**Flowers and pretty stones...**

**Those were becoming the main staples of courtship, weren't they? What cruel irony that they were also the staples of her hopeless love.**

**Nomura scoffed as she set the stones aside.**

**What a horrible joke this all was.**

 

_New stones came up every few days or so, and Draal always threw them down some hole to get rid of them._

_He didn't need the reminder, and he definitely didn't need anyone finding them. He didn't want, and probably couldn't bear, to explain them and where they were coming from._

_As such, when a pain in his chest started, he left the company he was in and returned to his cave, expecting to cough up more stones. But the pain never grew in intensity, instead remained as a faint ache, just noticeable enough to make him anxious. There was a tickle in his throat when he breathed, but he was unsure if it was the start of something else, or just the rawness from the stones._

_Then the tickle grew too intense, he began to cough. It didn't tighten his chest like the stones did, but it still prompted an intense hit, just trying to get rid of that tickle._

_Then something moved and he coughed up colorful things with strong scents. There was a whole mess of it and he stared aghast. Then he let out a long suffering sigh and picked it all up, putting it in a box and being careful to not crush them._

_Maybe he could go show Blinky to see what they were?_

_It was hardly worth it. It would probably related to Nomura anyway._

 

* * *

 

**_Eventually, things went south for the both of them, having one last meet up that devolved into a massive fight. Draal threw the flowers from his lungs in Nomura's face and Nomura left in a rage, coughing up bloody flowers and spitting out stones as she crushed the stems in her hand, trying to see through the tears._ **

**_She slammed the door as she entered, taking a look at the flowers in her hand and tossing them haphazardly somewhere, tears falling down her face and blood dripping down her chin. She grit her teeth against both and slammed her back into the door as she collapsed, trying not to sob over the pain in her chest._ **

**_What a cruel twist of the knife! Now he knew why she found him in the first place, and now she couldn't explain how her motives have changed. She couldn't explain the narcissus blooming in her chest. The amaryllis, the carnations, the marigold. She couldn't explain any of it!_ **

**_She couldn't explain how her heart jumped when he put aside his ego to be sweet. She couldn't explain how she loved his eyes, expressive and bright and warm, like everything she couldn't be. She couldn't explain how she wanted to hold him and help him. He would never let her near him again!_ **

**_Entire blooms feel from her lips, choking her on the larger ones, petals and blood falling onto her chest, staining the shirt. Tears joined the mess as she rubbed her eyes, and covered her mouth._ **

**_Bitter tears for a bitter love it seemed..._ **

****

**_Draal went home and crushed the few stones he kept and tossed them out, raging. He knew he shouldn't have trusted her! Her kind were only made to backstab and serve! She didn't even love him as he loved her! What a fool he was!_ **

**_But the thought of her motives and thoughts on him caused the greatest pain in his chest that he yet experienced. She... She never loved him, probably grit her teeth and bore the effort of endearing herself to him..._ **

**_Something in his chest cracked and he covered his mouth at the pain of it, his vision watering. He started coughing again, doubling over, wheezing and hacking and crying._ **

**_When he finally dislodged the stone in his chest, he wearily stared at it, and bit back the gasping sob as the sight of it rubbed salt in freshly rendered wounds._ **

**_In front of him, the zoisite and black opal somehow grew together, joined at a single point, almost like a heart. And the flowers that bloomed in his chest had tangled around it, filling the space between the two stones, and blooming in a beautifully painful array._ **

**_Small, pretty striped flowers in red and pink, long stems covered in several small blooms of rich purple. Fluffy golden yellow flowers. Delicate ones with five petals, with long rich green leaves attached. Some sort of small white blossoms. Another with wide petals and a distinct eye. And another bloom that was soft purple with darker veins._ **

**_They were all there, coming together with the stones that mimicked that Impure's – Changeling's – Nomura's – colors._ **

**_Draal growled and snatched it up, ready to pulverize it so it would stop mocking him. But his body wouldn't listen. His fist wouldn't tighten._ **

**_He couldn't bear to break it._ **

**_So he sighed and set it aside in a bowl of water, before sitting down and putting his head in his hands._ **

**_Talk about keep your friends close and enemies closer..._ **

**_What a joke._ **

**Author's Note:**

> I like flower language and the Hanahaki Disease is a lovely angst opportunity, so I took it.
> 
> Nomura's flowers: Narcissus, Amaryllis, Red and pink striped carnations, Marigold, petunia, and Ivy spring of white tendrils (Weird name I know)  
> Nomura's stones: Cavansite, Wurtzite
> 
> Draal's flowers: Purple Hyacinth, Carnations (same as Nomura's), Marigold, Oleander, Mock Orange, Anemone, and Petunia.  
> Draal's Stones: Purple zoisite, black opal with lots of green
> 
> I chose each of their flowers for their meaning, and I used languageofflowers.com to choose them! Anyway, tell me what you think!


End file.
